Fri - December
29, 2006
 Update your feeds!
The RSS file has moved. I've updated the blog
software to Wordpress, and the RSS URL has (out of necessity) changed
to:
http://www.toast442.org/feed
If
you're reading this, you've still got the old one.
Posted at 04:26 PM Permalink
|
Fri - October 20, 2006
 Complete works of Darwin online
 The
complete works of Charles
Darwin have been posted by University of Cambridge for your free
perusal. The cool thing about this is that it isn't just in plain old text
format. You can also choose to view the text along side a scan of one of the
original published books. They've got the text to multiple editions of
The
Origin of Species
, The
Descent of Man, and even his field
notebooks from the Beagle
voyage.Good stuff here. They also
state that only about 50% of the material has been published, and are promising
to get everything on the site by 2009.
Posted at 12:36 PM Permalink
|
Sun - October 15, 2006
Roomba monkey
Check out this über-creepy monkey
head mounted on a Roomba. I'm going to have nightmares for a
week.Link
Posted at 09:27 PM Permalink
|
Wed - September 27, 2006
Hosting sucks...
Is this thing on ... I hate switching providers -
everything breaks for a bit. If this makes it up there, I'll be super
surpsrised.
Update:
Well slap me silly - it appears everything is back
to normal. OK I admit - it was easier than I thought.
Posted at 12:36 AM Permalink
|
Wed - September 20, 2006
 ISP data retention laws
This
would suck. The powers that be are agitating for new data retention
laws that would force ISPs to keep track of just about everything you do online
and hold that info for years. Imagine - every instant message or email you sent
could have it's destination and source logged for use by law enforcement. Any
web site you visit or file you download -
logged.This means that at any point in
the future, your online activities could be dredged up examined for any purpose
or any cause that may be unpopular at the moment. Not to mention that your
records are kept by companies who have a less than stellar track record for
keeping things like that private. Hell, with info like that being stored, you
can be sure that information will leak like a
sieve.Right now these companies keep
some of this info, with varying amounts of enthusiasm and effectiveness, so
don't think you're immune right now. However, you're free to choose a provider
who keeps nothing at all or use anonymizer services. In the future this may not
be an option. Even now, having and using privacy tools is extremely important,
even for everyday activities.Check
out: Tor, (A relatively easy-to-use network
anonymizer)Privoxy (included with the complete
Tor distribution, helps keep private data from being sent to every web site you
visit. Also includes a nice ad-blocking setup as a
bonus.)Firefox with some nice plugins,
specifically NoScript, FoxyProxy, SafeCache, and
SafeHistory
Learn to use them and use them often.
Little brother may be watching.
Posted at 10:35 AM Permalink
|
Fri - September 15, 2006
Zune won't play your purchased music
I can't even believe that this is true, but here
is is, straight
from the horse's
mouth:Plays for Sure: Zune isn’t “Plays for Sure” compatible and the DRM-protected music from PFS services likely won’t play without the usual burn to CD workaround. Lee’s explanation: PFS was established to make sure non-integrated players and services were compatible; because Zune is an integrated environment, it doesn’t need PFS. Lee: “We wanted an integrated experience from the beginning. … Our focus is on giving the user one great experience.” You
read that right - Microsoft is not going to allow their new Zune music player to
use content purchased from stores supporting their own "Plays for Sure"
technology. Again: IT WON'T PLAY CONTENT
FROM STORES USING THEIR OWN FORMAT.
WTF?Apparently they're going for the
ultra-niche market of those people who haven't yet bought a digital music
player. Sure as hell won't be people who have any investment in music they've
purchased from their own music
partners...I would be pissed if I was
Napster or Rhapsody or any of those other music store also-rans. This thing has
the potential to just bury them. Their own partner has basically just dumped
them for a new platform and not letting anyone else play.
Suckers.They're trying to pull an
Apple marketing move here and actually make a good end-to-end solution for music
- but since when has Microsoft *EVER* been able to do that? They've already
screwed their customers once with "Plays for Sure," are you really going to
trust them with your music purchases again?
Posted at 02:58 PM Permalink
|
Wed - August 30, 2006
Daily Kos put to sleep...
Daily
Kos used to be my favorite place to get fairly solid reporting on
political news. Yes, the thing is ridiculously skewed toward the liberal side of
the fence and I tend to fence-sit, but the overall news gathering and digging
really stood out with good links to source material and
whatnot.However, there's been a
downward trend toward inanity there, which finally pushed me over the edge
today. The straw that broke the camel's back was this
one where there's an entire article and 300+ comments devoted to
proving once and for all that the idiot Lieberman's new campaign ad shows a
sunset ("a metaphor for the end of his senate career?") instead of the obviously
intended sunrise.They've got someone
digging up the original source
material from Getty and lengthly, apparently serious, discussions of
such important issues as:1. This can't
be a sunrise because only sunsets cause red sky
glow2. Where this picture was taken
couldn't be a sunrise because the beach faces the wrong
way3. The found original source isn't
really the right one, there's a slightly different one that is a better
fit4. Much mirth at Lieberman's
campaign manager who initially insisted that it was, indeed, a
sunrise.This goes on and on. As I
read, I realized that these people were completely out of it. This is but one
example of the idiocy that now typifies any given day at dkos. I can't take it
any more. The bad outweighs the good and it's too time consuming to sort through
the crap there.Buh
bye.
Posted at 04:01 PM Permalink
|
Thu - July 20, 2006
 PGP Appears to Suck
Well, it's official. It looks like newer versions
of PGP are just going to suck and there's nothing you can do about it. Their
ridiculous new email (sorry - messaging) system is here to stay. The official
word from a posting by Earle Lowe, a Dev Manager at PGP from June 11,
2006:Obviously there is a philosophical (and fundemental) disagreement about the nature of email encryption. The current technology was felt as clearly the best path forward for PGP as a software product. It solves numerous issues with integrating into the various email applications that people want to use. It supports PGP/MIME. It supports centralized policy management. It enables a much simpler experience for the user (we have not yet achieved this obviously). The list continues.
The way you want PGP to work where you actually see the ciphertext was and continues to be simply not possible in any number of email clients. The old architecture was neither maintainable nor extensable. As an example, Outlook Express, for all its obvious faults is a popular email client. Prior to PGP 9, the PGP rip-in for this email client was a significant amount of tricky code requiring substantial developer expertise (and was prone to break frequently - particularly with MS updates). PGP 9, on the other hand, has zero specialized code to handle Outlook Express. OK
- I can completely understand the problems with keeping up with email clients.
It's a pain in the butt. But removing security so it's easier for the end user?
What a dumb statement. Why not just remove all encryption from the product? That
will make it even easier. In fact, this is basically what they have now
anyhow.Their craptastic "easy to use"
messaging proxy defaults to settings so you don't have to change anything in
your email client to make it work. Seems like a convenient feature. All emails
could be encrypted/signed on their way out. Except if the proxy ever fails, that
email you just sent doesn't get
encrypted - it just gets sent because your
mail client doesn't know the difference. It just uses the same old settings it
always did. This failure mode is completely unacceptable. I can't even believe
they offer this as an option. Dumber than
hell.The really screwed up part about
this is that their proxy does fail for non-obvious reasons, mostly because it's
a pain in the ass to set up and get working properly, even with their auto
detection running. In my case, emails from one account went out signed, another
didn't - all because my SMTP port wasn't something they were expecting and were
trapping (and there is no way to change this either, apparently.)
My advice? Don't even think to use
this hunk of junk for email on the Mac (or anywhere else for that matter.) It's
not worth it. Stick to using GPG. It actually does the right thing, despite
lacking the nice key management front end. I didn't even test anything else in
their software. What other crap doesn't work or is broken in non-obvious
ways?I feel sorry for all those n00bs
out there running this crap and thinking they are secure in any
way.Update:
I posted to their forums about these concerns.
Despite tons of "views" no one has answered. Based on the posts they actually
answer on their forums, it looks like their target market has changed to be
those customers who think running something called "PGP" magically makes them
secure.
Posted at 09:21 AM Permalink
|
Wed - July 19, 2006
PGP For Intel Macs
PGP just released a beta version of PGP 9.5 that
has universal binary support. I used to use PGP back in the day on Windows, but
didn't really keep up with it, eventually moving on to GnuPG for my encryption
needs. However, after seeing the note about this new release, I thought I'd give
them another shot. I always loved their nice key management (something GnuPG
doesn't have a great front end for at the
moment.)
I was browsing through their
user's manual while downloading, and came across a paragraph titled "Memory
Static Ion Migration Protection" in the "Special Security Precautions Taken by
PGP Desktop " section. This thing goes on about how an attacker could
theoretically retrieve key or passphrase information from your machines memory -
after it's already been turned off - by reading the static charge left over from
memory that has had the same information stored for long periods. This is some
deep stuff here, and they go on about how they help to protect you against this
remotest of possibilities. Cool
stuff.
So the download finishes, and I
install the thing, import my keys from GnuGP, and go to send an email, and
realize that they've done away with the plugin model for mail, instead relying
on a network proxy that intercepts mail and encrypts and decrypts it
automatically, based on rules you set up. This works similarly to their
Universal Server product. So now Mail.app (and any other mail client) sends mail
to the proxy, where PGP will encrypt it. On the other side of things, incoming
encrypted mail is automagically decrypted and then handed to the email client.
Works OK (though with some pain trying to get everything set
right.)
Then I realized that all the
encrypted and signed email that I'd be receiving, would now be stored in
PLAINTEXT
in my freaking email folders, on a public IMAP server. In addition, there
doesn't even seem to be a way to turn this off or any alternate mechanism aside
from not using the email proxy portion of the product. This breaks about 90% of
the functionality that I use PGP for.
Without storing the encrypted/signed
version of incoming mail, I can no longer guarantee that someone hasn't messed
with it on the server. All that's left is some text pasted at the top of the
mail that says it was signed and verified at some point. No indication of what
that may have been, of course. At that point, someone could just as easily
change the contents to whatever they like, completely bypassing any security
that at one time existed.
This also
goes for sent mail - it's no longer stored in your sent folder encrypted - it's
sitting there in plaintext too. Still worse, there's no indication of what you
did to the email when you sent it. Did I encrypt it? Sign it? Who knows now -
that information is gone now that we're not storing the encrypted/signed copy of
the message.
And still worse, someone
could easily - MUCH TOO EASILY - forge a message that now looks like it's been
verified by the proxy, when it has, in fact, done no such thing.
They do still have a legacy mail
plugin that permits decryption of older emails that you may have received and
didn't pass through the digestive tract of their new product. But get this - on
the message boards someone was complaining that the plugin didn't successfully
decrypt messages from certain people. The response? "Oh, that plugin only works
with some message types. Use the
proxy."
What a
junker.
Yes, they protect you from some
arcane attack that requires an electron microscope and a clean room to make
work, but they'll happily decrypt and store your email in the most unsafe way
possible. What in the world were they thinking? This isn't even limited to the
new Mac product apparently - this is an across the board product line change
that screws everyone.
Posted at 01:30 PM Permalink
|
Tue - April 25, 2006
Free SubEthaEdit Licenses?
Well, maybe - in any case, they're cheaper than
the normal $30. BLOGZOT 2.0 on MacZOT.com has
SubEthaEdit from CodingMonkeys
up as their subject for today. The price basically keeps dropping by a nickel
each time someone blogs about it (like this!) or until 3000 copies are sold. If
it gets to be free, so much the better! All the bloggers get theirs at no cost.
Boo-ya. This amounts to MacZot and the Coding Monkeys giving away
$105,000
in free software.If you're not
familiar with SubEthaEdit
you're really missing out. It's got the best collaborative writing system in
existence, as well as being just a plain nice editor. If you've never taken
conference notes with five other people doing the same in the same document, you
haven't lived.Check it out and get
yours for cheap.
Posted at 03:35 PM Permalink
|
Tue - April 11, 2006
New MacBook Pro
I've now fully converted to running everything on
my new MacBook Pro. A few points:
1.
Rosetta
RULES: I
can't believe how seamless and fast it is. I can run Quake 3 (ok, not the most
recent thing, but still!) full screen with all options turned on, and I can't
tell the difference from my 1.67 G4 PB. I want to run some FPS benchmarks to see
what kind of penalty I'm getting.
2.
World of Warcraft: 80 FPS with most graphics options turned on. Enough
said.
3. You need 2GB of RAM. Period.
Don't even think of running without
it.
More in the coming
days.
Posted at 11:47 AM Permalink
|
Tue - December
20, 2005
Hey Nutjobs: You Lose
It's a nice Christmas gift! The judge in the
Pennsylvania intelligent design trial has ruled today and
said:... (Wait for it)
...That ID isn't science, can't
divorce itself from it's creationist and religious roots, and hence, cannot be
taught in science classes in PA. Expect the counter suits to begin any day now,
as well as Pat Robertson to call for the death of the judge, lawyers, and any
"science types" in Pennsylvania. Can
we put this behind us now, please? Keep your fairy tales out of the science
classroom. That is all.Link
to CNN article.
Posted at 12:04 PM Permalink
|
Tue - December
13, 2005
Whales are fish, right?
This was too funny not to post. Google News picks
up these little editorials and letters from small papers around the country with
the keywords evolution, intelligent design, etc. Most of these are
unintelligible and completely forgettable. But every once in a while, you get
something like the
following:
Another convincing proof is the fact that there are similarities between species, which would be expected if they were all designed by the same Designer. If evolution is the great unifying principle in biology, why don't we see the evolution of species today? (The sort of massive change that would be necessary for Darwinism to be true. Imagine. Mammals becoming whales, reptiles becoming birds, etc.) In the absence of such evidence, the proof is strong that one intelligent designer is responsible for whatever similarities exist in nature. Imagine!
WHALES BECOMING MAMMALS!
Man, if that ever happened, evolution would
have just have to be true. But since they're, like, fish, or something, there
must be a designer.
Posted at 11:20 AM Permalink
|
Thu - November 17, 2005
Buttars at it again
State Senator Chris "I'm not from South Park"
Buttars is again in the
news with yet another misguided attempt to shove intelligent design
down the throats of educators and students alike. That's right - if you don't
like science, just pass a bill to legislate the truth out of
existence.This guy is just setting up
the state for a ridiculous number of lawsuits costing millions of dollars. I
can't seriously believe that someone in this day and age can be so willfully
ignorant that he spends his time in office not helping his constituency, but
actively working to destroy children's educations.
Like Kansas, soon Utah will become the
laughing stock of university admissions boards
everywhere.Keep up the good work
Chris! Legislating science worked so well in Russia, it's bound to do the same
for us!!
Posted at 04:11 PM Permalink
|
Email Priorities
OK, when did this start and how can we stop it?
NEARLY EVERY FREAKING EMAIL I GET
now has the little "high priority" thing set.
Doesn't matter if they're asking about the weather or if it's a pardon from
governor for that prisoner being executed. Almost all mail is being sent with
this flag on. I've turned off the icons in my client that highlight the
apparently ultra-urgent "LOL, YOULL LOVE THIS JOKE, LOL :-)" I get from
"friends" or cow-orkers.
Seriously,
did some new Outlook version get deployed which allows this to be defaulted to
High for all mail? And who the hell are these jerks kidding that they think
everything they send needs immediate attention? If you need immediate action,
pick up the damn phone. Otherwise, it's probably going to sit in my inbox for a
while until I get enough cycles to deal with
it.
Look, emails get delayed, lost,
folded, spindled, and occasionally mutilated. It's not a 100% reliable form of
communication. If it really is important, email should only be a backup for a
phone call. So DROP THE OVERUSE OF HIGH
PRIORITY MAIL. It sucks, and if you continue
to abuse it, you'll suck too. It's already been rendered useless for me, so just
DROP
IT.
Posted at 12:45 PM Permalink
|
|
Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.
- H.L. Mencken
Calendar
| | Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat
|
Why the hell doesn't IE 6 support transparent PNGs?
Categories
Archives
PHOTO ALBUMS
The Photo Galleries are offline at the moment. I've moved the site to a new provider and haven't had time to set them up.
OS X Software
Windows Software
Miscellaneous Stuff
RSS Feed
» RSS feed for Toast442.org
Statistics
Total entries in this blog:
Published On: Dec 29, 2006 04:26 PM
|